Keith Lee Debuts In AEW, Beats Isiah Kassidy

Keith Lee debuted in AEW, defeating Isiah Kassidy to earn a spot in the Face of the Revolution Ladder Match.

Lee received a massive reaction, just moments after Jay White made his debut in a backstage segment by assisting The Young Bucks. Lee’s booking on Night 1 in AEW made him come off as a bigger star as any single day on the WWE main roster. With AEW continuing to struggle in promoting Black talent, one f pro wrestling’s biggest stars—regardless of skin color—has just fallen into its lap. AEW doesn’t look like it intends to mess this up.

Tony Khan had been promoting a “huge” debut, after taking to Twitter this past Friday night on Rampage to hype a “newsworthy” announcement. Khan’s announcement came on the heels of rumors that Keith Lee had signed with AEW after his 90-day no compete with WWE expired.

“As referenced on #AEWRampage, I have a surprise: on #AEWDynamite Live on @TBSNetwork a top wrestler will walk through the Forbidden Door this Wednesday and debut in @AEW,” said Khan in a Tweet.

“More info to come. Thank you to everyone who joined us for a great Rampage tonight! See you Wednesday on TBS!’”

Khan continued promoting the signing in an interview with Justin Barrasso of Sports Illustrated (h/t Wrestling Inc)

“It’s a huge signing for us,” Khan said. “I have created some debate about what it means to open the ‘Forbidden Door’ and that’s what we are going to do on this show. The fans are going to get a great night of wrestling, and I hope everyone is surprised—and comes back for the matches this sets up.

“It’s going to be a big reveal on Dynamite. It sets up this week’s Rampage and puts a lot of irons in our fire. We have created an environment in AEW where people routinely expect great wrestling matches, and we have the wrestlers to live up to those high expectations.”

Khan went on to tease that only a “handful” of people knew of AEW’s signing, suggesting it could be even bigger than Keith Lee. Some would lead you to believe it was Jeff Hardy.

Khan has never been afraid to hype a big big AEW signing, and though AEW does right by its fanbase more times than not, the enthusiastic President has taken flak in the past for overpromising. For some, this was the case with Christian’s debut at AEW Revolution in 2021 amid comments that the surprise signing was one of his favorite wrestlers.

“It wasn’t The Rock. It wasn’t Goldberg or whatever, but here’s the thing too, I don’t think it’s any secret that wrestling fans are very opinionated, and when you light a spark, it turns into a wildfire no matter,” said Christian on Talk is Jericho.

“So it doesn’t matter who showed up. There were going to be people that were disappointed or whatever. When you make that kind of announcement, you’re giving people the option to pick who they think should be over there, who they want to be and all those sorts of things.”

It could be argued that Khan’s best promotion of an incoming talent was the lack thereof for CM Punk. Khan relied on online speculation, while guiding rumors and innuendo with subtle hints, and it paid off massively with the first and only broadcast of AEW Rampage to draw over one million viewers.

In the end, Khan and AEW once again overdelivered on a surprise debut, similar to the debuts of Bryan Danielson, Jon Moxley, Adam Cole and CM Punk. Not only did Jay White’s backstage debut help deliver on Khan’s massive hype, Keith Lee lived up to the lofty hype by his lonesome as his reclamation project is off to a promising start.